I don’t know what the right questions are, but diving to the bottom will get you to interesting places.

Whether you are interviewing a new recruit, talking with customers, or a potential seller, you are going to have questions. Some are standard and some are situational, but you must make sure that they aren’t dancing around the center.

When analyzing a business, there are 100s of factors you can observe. But what are the 3-5 questions that really matter? Those should be the filters.

What are 3 questions that your employees should ask daily, monthly, yearly or before doing a task? A lot of conversations can lead to great resolutions, but you can also get people asking questions consistently of themselves. This can help with self improvement, quality, actions you want people to do, or wherever you are trying to guide an employee to.

It takes serious skill to ask great questions. It takes practice, observation, and experience. If you aren’t great at asking questions in the moment, write them down beforehand. Explore the depths of answers you might find. You can also steal other people’s questions.

Thanks to Everest Brady for his help, writing, and research in assembling this week’s newsletter.

This Week on Think Like an Owner

Our guest on this episode is Sieva Kozinsky, co-founder of Enduring Ventures, a holding company founded in 2019 with 17 acquisitions to date. Sieva and Alex met at a dinner following the Berkshire Hathaway meeting in Omaha, his first time attending the meeting. A theme from our first conversations in Omaha that continues through this episode is long-term thinking being a huge advantage, and that compounding happens everywhere. Reputation, lessons, and learning - well beyond capital alone.

We talk about Sieva’s background as a founder and how it impacts his role at Enduring Ventures, how he discovered he is a better buyer than a builder, great companies and founders he’s studied and taken lessons from, and much more. Enjoy!

This episode Q&A features CEO August Felker of Oberle Risk Strategies, answering the question, “If I’m operating a roll-up, how should I plan my insurance needs?”

Every CEO and entrepreneur needs support from a team of expert professionals like attorneys, bankers, and accountants like Hood & Strong. Less often mentioned, and just as important, is insurance. And August Felker at Oberle Risk Strategies are the experts that you need on your team to navigate the insurance needs of your company as dozens of past podcast guests have partnered with them to do. Oberle helps you evaluate where your current and soon to be acquired company needs for insurance today and what it might need tomorrow. please reach out to learn more about how Oberle can help with insurance due diligence at oberle-risk.com. Or reach out to the CEO, August Felker, directly at [email protected].

Read

Listen

This Week in SMB Twitter

Think Like an Owner is sponsored by:

Ravix Group - Ravix Group is a fraction CFO, outsourced accounting, and HR consulting firm serving small and large businesses alike. Whether you or someone you know is getting started, searching to buy a business, or building out an organization, Ravix will help on the journey. To learn more about Ravix Group, head to their website and tell them Think Like An Owner sent you.

Hood & Strong, LLP – Hood & Strong is a CPA firm with a long history of working with search funds and private equity firms on diligence, assurance, tax services, and more. To learn more about how Hood & Strong can help your search, acquisition, and beyond, please email one of their partners Jerry Zhou at [email protected].

Oberle Risk Strategies– Oberle is the leading specialty insurance brokerage catering to search funds and the broader ETA community, providing complimentary due diligence assessments of the target company’s commercial insurance and Employee benefits programs. If you are under LOI, please reach out to learn more about how Oberle can help with insurance due diligence at oberle-risk.com. Or reach out to the CEO, August Felker, directly at [email protected].

Interested in sponsoring? Reply to this email and let’s chat.